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You must be aware of the fact that Google uses a number of factors to determine the ranking of a website on the SERP. Are you wondering that what does domain authority has to do with that? Well, domain authority is one of the factors which decide where you are going to be listed on the SERP.
Therefore it gets very important to boost your domain authority but it is not that easy if you don’t know how to do it. The domain authority can be tough to influence directly as it comprises of a combination of link data and metrics that controls the authority score.
This was done keeping in mind Google’s agenda because even Google takes a number of factors in consideration when it comes to Search Engine Optimization then why should a metric that calculates the authority stay behind, right?
5 Facts You Must Know About Domain Authority
It is very important to understand the basics of domain authority before knowing how to increase it. If you will be clear on the concept then you will automatically have a better shot at improving it. Some things that you must know about domain authority are:
- Moz is a third party tool which tells Google where a website should rank using a scale of 0-100 in the form of domain authority. If a website has a higher DA, it has a better chance of ranking well.
- It is a myth that domain authority is the only factor that is responsible for a good rank. Turns out, DA is based on several factors that let Moz calculate the strong suit of a website. It takes more than 40 factors to determine it which include popularity, link data, trust scores, etc.
- Moz’s page authority is different from Google’s PageRank and it is possible to have a higher page authority as compared to domain authority. However, when one has a better DA the chance of ranking automatically increases as it is considered a long term factor.
- It is totally free to find your domain authority. All you need to do is visit Moz’s open site explorer and enter your URL. You can also install their extension to find out any website’s DA or PA. The free version just shows the score but the paid version shows the detailed breakup of the score.
- Usually, the average DA comes between 40-50, and any score from 50-60 is considered good. If a site has a DA of over 60 then it is excellent.
Understanding MozRank and MozTrust
In order to get a better understanding of a domain authority, you must understand MozRank and MozTrust.
What is MozRank?
The importance of the links on a particular website is indicated via MozRank. It is judged by the quality and the number of other pages linked to your website. Moz uses its own algorithm to conclude the range but it measures the quantity and quality of links on a landing page specifically.
This is the reason why every page on a website has a different MozRank. It is measured in the range of 0-10 where 0 is the worst, 10 is the most popular and 3 is considered as an average. A good website along with several backlinks provides a good MozRank.
As per Moz’s Dr. Peter J. Meyers, MozRank only looks at the strength of a page’s link profile and not the quality of the individual links.
You can also see your competitor’s MozRank, draw a comparison, and plan your SEO strategies accordingly. As it is updated on a regular basis, you will be able to get a better picture of the position of their websites or the keywords they are using to rank better.
What is MozTrust?
MozTrust is known as the global link trust score which is another metric of Moz to determine domain authority. It is quite identical to MozRank but instead of quantifying the link popularity, it takes link trust into consideration.
It means that if you have links from trusted and established sources like various major universities or government web pages, it will boost up your MozTrust and then eventually the domain authority.
Moz says, “We determine MozTrust by calculating link ‘distance’ between a given page and a ‘seed’ site — a specific, known trust source (website) on the Internet. Think of this like six degrees of separation: The closer you are linked to a trusted website, the more trust you have.”
Ways to Boost Domain Authority of Your Website
It might be tough to increase domain authority but it is not impossible. If you work on a number of things then your domain score can be positively impacted. Factors that you can consider to boost domain authority are:
Pick a Relevant Domain Name
It is very important to pick a domain name that is relevant to the industry. If you are associated with digital marketing then try to have keywords related to it in your domain rather than having a vague name which shows no connection to it. If your domain is about to expire then it is better to renew beforehand as it shows that your website can be trusted in the long run.
Audit Link Profiles
You must have an impressive link profile and try to get backlinks to a variety (yet relevant) of websites as well as those who have a high authority. There are a number of free tools that you can refer to in order to see the link profile’s health.
You must audit the links on a regular basis as it doesn’t only include the links that you build but also includes links that others create for your website and it is not necessary that it is going to be in your favor.
You should check for broken links and either fix them or remove them because every broken link adds to a bad experience and results in lost link juice. With the help of Link Juice Recovery Tool (LJR), you can do it as a part of a single report and upload it without any hassle.
You should also run a check to find out the best subpages and optimize the internal linking structure accordingly. You can use Strongest Subpages Tool to determine it and link it at your convenience.
Generate High Quality Links
We have already discussed the importance of generating high quality links from MozTrust’s point of view which works as a determining factor of the domain authority.
You can check out Backlinko’s skyscraper method for the same. It is an SEO practice where you get content that has a higher ranking for the keyword that you would like to rank for. You can easily find out the top ranking competitor of yours, create better content, use tools to find out the site’s they have linked to and use a combination of all of this in your favour.
You can try out another way to get high quality links which is asking other websites that have a higher DA or PA to link to your top content. All you need to make sure is that the content you are asking to link to be relevant and worth it.
Create Engaging Content
We cannot stress enough on the fact that how important it is to have great content. When you have engaging and relevant content on your website, it will automatically attract links to it which are going to be a good thing for you.
In order to boost your website’s engagement, you must have a loyal audience and that could only happen if you have high quality content.
You can use relevant images, videos or infographics in order to make your content interesting.
Internal Linking
When a user reads content on your page and they can find an internal link then it becomes easier for them to research the related topics without opening 10 other tabs. Therefore, make internal linking a habit and you will see the results for yourself.
Filter Links
By now, you must have understood that links play a vital role when it comes to domain authority. Before getting to filtering links, let me ask you a question. How will you feel if you visit some shop only to find out it has been closed? There is no chance you are going there even if it opens up sometime in the future. Now imagine someone coming to your website only to find a broken link. There is only a bleak personality that they will return. Therefore rather than someone catching with you on your bad day, it is best to filter links already so that the user goes through no trouble or errors on your website.
Improve On site SEO
The best way to boost your domain authority is to pay attention to on page SEO. Make sure that you avoid keyword stuffing and use heading tags. Try using long tail keywords as they are easier to rank and make sure that you pay close attention to the placement of the keywords.
Always add a Meta description along with a Meta title which includes your keyword as it will get you more clicks from the targeted audience. People often forget how important image optimization is therefore make it a point to add alt tags.
Decrease the Loading Time
If your website takes a long time to load then people are going to exit it eventually which is going to result in a low authority score. It is best to optimize your website and ensure that it takes as little time as possible to load. Try to remove anything that slows down your website and can be a potential factor aiming towards the bounce rate. These small measures will surely fetch you a sweet fruit in the future.
Avoid Website Penalties
If you think that you can indulge in black hat SEO practices and get away with it then you couldn’t be more wrong. If you try things to speed up the process of SEO then you are surely going to experience a downfall sooner or later, therefore, it is best to use the correct white hat seo approaches to get a better ranking.
It’s best to keep yourself as away as possible from getting penalized because it takes a long time to recover from the penalty and things won’t be the same for you in the long run.
Work On Providing A Great User Experience
If your website is not user friendly and your audience doesn’t figure out an easy way to navigate through it then it is not going to be a positive point for you.
It is very important for users to have a great experience because at the end of the day, even Google says to optimize your website as per the users and not for crawlers solely.
You must have a proper structure of the content and internal linking too so that the user can move around the website freely and find what they are looking for. Make your website mobile friendly and optimize it as per different devices so that people can load it anytime and anywhere without going through any trouble.
You must keep these points in mind to boost your domain authority. We are sure that this will not only help you with the authority score but other ranking factors as well.